202512 - Scotland Advisory Group Minutes - December 2025 (Easy Read)

This is an Easy Read set of Minutes to say what happened at a meeting.

It is a set of Minutes to say what happened at a meeting.

In this document the Independent Living Fund Scotland is ILF Scotland for short.

This meeting happened at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow.

It happened from 11am to 3pm on 11 December.

Jim welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Lee will record the minutes.

Everyone introduced themselves and said what their job was in the group or in ILF Scotland.

The minutes were checked and agreed.

There were no other issues in the last minutes.

An action from the last meeting for Lee to share Policy 41 Flexible Funding with the Advisory Group has been done.

There was nothing new to add to the agenda.

Jill and Joan talked about research into Personal Assistant (PA for short) work being done by Glasgow University.

Lisa is a student leading the project.

Lisa introduced her work to the PA Programme Board.

The Group agreed that the research will be useful as it will support ways to make this part of social care better.

The Group agreed to invite Lisa to speak at the next meeting in March 2026 to share what her research has found out so far.

Lee will send out the flyer Lisa has made with information about the course she is involved in.

Group members should contact Lisa if they would like to take part.

ILF Scotland staff will put the flyer on social media.

Linda said Tom Arthur MSP - Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing - could not come to today’s meeting in person.

The Group decided to have a meeting with the Minister on 20 January on Zoom.

Lee will send out information to all members about the meeting and how to join it.

Jim said the Group must keep introductions short at the meeting so there is more time to talk about things.

The meeting will last for 30 minutes.

Linda will send members an agenda and briefing.

At a review visit an Assessor visits a person who gets ILF funding to check:

• if they are getting their money okay
• if the money is helping them to live independently

Linda said all review visits are up to date but there are still problems with:

• recruitment of PAs – this means how employers advertise jobs and choose people to do them

• complicated ways of doing reviews
• high costs from organisations that provide PAs

Peter asked if people had any budget cuts from their council:

• Stuart’s funding was stopped for 2 years after a visit from an Occupational Therapist

• Justina did not have much contact with her council when her son left hospital
• Joan’s council tried to take 5 thousand pounds from her Direct Payments account, which she fought against and won

Joan would like ILF Scotland to be responsible for Direct Payments Option 1 instead of councils.

New people who are getting ILF money have given positive feedback and said it is making a big difference to their lives.

Feedback means to say what they think about things.

We hope that 1 thousand 4 hundred people will have applied to the fund by the end of the year.

Peter said that ILF Scotland is waiting to hear what money it will get in 2026.

1. Co-Production Working Group policy

• there is now an unpaid care part in the re-opened fund

• fund limits are still:
  • 8 hundred pounds
  • 4 hundred and 85 pounds if there is a lot of unpaid care from a live in carer

• money from the Scottish Government’s Disability Equality Plan will pay for a project to test applications from Disabled Person’s Organisations (DPOs) to ILF Scotland to see if they work well.

The pilot project will start in April 2026 for a year.

ILF Scotland have 5 applications from DPOs and we will decide about them in January.

The Policy Team are looking at how policies link between the re-opened fund and the 2015 fund about:

• age range
• disability benefits like DLA

• the capital threshold – this means the amount of money a person can own in assets – the things they own that have value like money or a house.

Linda will say how well this is going at the next Advisory Group meeting.

2. Karen talked about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) work:

• on 11 key areas in the plan
• with young people aged 15 to 18 on the Transition Fund

• with the Scottish Youth Parliament
• child-friendly communications and training, including a short online course about child rights

Karen will share progress at the next Advisory Group meeting.

In April 2026 ILF Scotland will report on progress on meeting the UNCRC rules for 2025 to 2026.

Linda said the Board and the Scottish Government have approved ILF Scotland’s Strategic Plan 2025 to 2028 and it is on the ILF Scotland website.

The Board also approved the Feedback Strategy and Service Charter.
Emma is looking at ways for people including the Advisory Group to give feedback.

We will hear about 2 new Board appointments soon: 1 from Northern Ireland and 1 from Scotland.

Another person is being considered to work on the Transition Fund.

We talked about the agenda for the next Joint Advisory Group meeting.

How people employ and keep PAs is still very important.

Linda suggested that the meeting could include:

• ways for people to give feedback
• discussion about Award Management

The Group agreed.

Jim said it was important that DPOs had funding so they can help people apply for the re-opened fund.

Linda said that Anne-Marie Monaghan will come to the next Scotland Advisory Group meeting in March 2026.

The Group would like to have a meeting with the full ILF Scotland Board.

Linda said the earliest this could happen would be April.

The next meeting will be in March 2026.

Lee will send out all meeting dates and times before January.

In 2026 the Group will have 2 in-person meetings, 1 online meeting in the summer and 1 online meeting at Christmas.

1. Lee will send out information about the PA Research Project.
2. ILF staff will put the flyer on social media.
3. Lee will send out information about the meeting with the Minister when we know what the time and date will be.
4. Linda will send out an agenda and briefing for members.
5. Lee will send out all meeting dates for 2026.

This is the end of these Minutes.